


Bedtime Story

by Kalira



Category: Naruto
Genre: (every child knows there are Rules), Bedtime Stories, Family, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Orochimaru is Kakashi's Mama, Reading Aloud, Sakumo Week, Sakumo Week 2020, The Rules of Bedtime Stories, good parenting, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:47:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26330611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalira/pseuds/Kalira
Summary: Kakashi has afavouritebedtime story, but there arerulesabout how to read it, Dad!
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Sakumo/Orochimaru
Comments: 13
Kudos: 169
Collections: Kalira's Sakumo Week Stories (2020), Sakumo Week 2020





	Bedtime Story

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Sakumo Week](https://sakumoweek.tumblr.com/post/616294351828664322/welcome-to-the-official-sakumo-week-blog-starting), Day 6: Rules
> 
> This one was inspired by a children's picture book I was reading some weeks ago. . .

“There you are, precious.” Orochimaru scooped Kakashi out of the bath and brought him close, wrapping him in a towel. Kakashi yipped softly, then yawned as he nuzzled into Orochimaru’s hands.

Orochimaru hummed, kissing his brow and tousling his hair to get at least most of the water out. Once dry, he let Kakashi - who was wriggling - slide down from his lap to the floor and handed him the towels to walk over to the hamper, turning to see to the bath himself.

“There you go, Nori.” Kakashi said as Orochimaru turned back to him, just in time to see his son carefully patting the top of Nori’s upraised snout with a corner of the towel. Orochimaru hid a smile as Nori hissed, lowering his body when Kakashi was done and looping around him affectionately.

“Off to bed.” Orochimaru said, crouching. “Your father is waiting to tuck you in.”

Kakashi snuggled into his arms, pressing a kiss to his chin, and Orochimaru hugged him tight, nuzzling his damp hair. Kakashi sighed as he pulled away, and a gentle nudge had him heading off towards his bedroom.

Orochimaru stroked Nori’s head, then offered a dry towel. Nori would dry faster than Kakashi after their bath, but it would be better if he were not damp when he went to bed.

Nori slithered into his hands, tongue flicking meditatively, and accepted the help.

* * *

“H’lo Dad!” Kakashi jumped on him and Sakumo shifted sideways, catching his cub with a laugh.

“All clean and ready for bed, cub?” Sakumo asked, folding his legs and keeping Kakashi in his arms, weight settling cosily into his lap. Kakashi giggled and snuggled into his embrace, and Sakumo crooned, nuzzling his hair.

He dropped a kiss atop Kakashi’s head, hugging him tighter, and smiled as he saw Nori slithering into Kakashi’s futon. He released Kakashi with a gentle nudge, and Kakashi hopped over Nori’s nearest coil and into the centre of his futon.

He remained sitting bolt upright, legs crossed. Sakumo raised an eyebrow.

“ _Dad!_ ” Kakashi drew it out, pouting. “Story!”

Sakumo laughed, reaching out and ruffling Kakashi’s hair. He grinned, resting a hand on Nori’s scales as he wound closer, broad head nudging up against Kakashi’s waist.

“Of course, cub.” Sakumo agreed, nodding.

“The story with the bunnies!” Kakashi demanded, and Sakumo paused and drew a deep breath. “And the snow and the mousies and the little wolfcub!”

Of course he wanted that one.

“ _That_ story?” Sakumo asked, without much hope that-

“Dad! Want the story!” Kakashi nodded, eyes fixed on Sakumo’s face. “It’s the _best_ story!”

Sakumo smothered a sigh and nodded. “Of course, cub.” He squeezed Kakashi’s shoulder and moved away to retrieve the thin illustrated book.

“And you have to do the voices!” Kakashi insisted stridently behind him.

Sakumo winced a little. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a story with . . . fewer voices?” he asked. “Mama is better at the voices.”

Orochimaru was _stunningly_ better at shifting his voice, in fact.

“I could read you a different story tonight, and Mama could read this one for you again tomorrow night?” Sakumo suggested.

“No! Want the wolfling story!” Kakashi insisted, and Sakumo held it up as he returned to his cub’s side.

“Of course, Kakashi.” Sakumo promised as Kakashi grinned, wriggling in place. “It’s _your_ bedtime story, you may have any story you like.”

Which was why Sakumo could recite this story without looking at the pages. Which was good, as . . . they didn’t quite tell it for Kakashi the way it had been written.

“Are you comfortable?” Sakumo prompted, and Kakashi jumped, then hurriedly unfolded his legs, nudging Nori’s head out of his lap as he moved. Nori shifted with equanimity, coiling closer, and Kakashi shuffled under the kakebuton, tugging it up a little more over himself.

Sakumo caught the edge of it, putting the book down, and smoothed it over Kakashi and Nori alike. Nori hissed, tongue flicking out beside Kakashi’s ear, and Kakashi giggled, winding his arms around Nori not far beyond his head and settling his own head on one broad loop of Nori’s coils. Nori, in turn, wound himself around Kakashi much as he had when Kakashi was very small and Nori had regularly made himself into a warm, supportive cradle.

Kakashi rubbed his cheek lightly against Nori’s scales, and Nori lifted his head over Kakashi’s shoulder, the two of them cuddling in cosily. It had, once, been an unsettling sight for Sakumo - his cub held in such broad coils, the foreign body language of a serpent difficult for him to read - but had long since become familiar and reassuring.

“Ready?” Sakumo asked, taking up the book again, and Kakashi nodded. Sakumo settled himself near the head of the futon, turning so that Kakashi could see the book easily. He opened it and-

“Dad. You _have_ to do the voices,” Kakashi said pointedly before Sakumo could begin, “it’s not the story if you don’t do the voices! It’s the _rules_.”

Whose rules, Sakumo wondered wryly.

“Of course, Kakashi. Hush.” Sakumo said, giving him a look. “I will _read with the voices_.” he promised. He lingered briefly on the title page, with its small painting of a rabbit eyeing the reader suspiciously as it washed or nosed at its own paws, then turned to the first pages of the story, across which spread a snowy scene under a starry sky.

Kakashi snuggled in, eyes bright, as Sakumo read along with the book, turning pages and affecting a soft voice for the owl taking flight through the forest, light flurries of snow swirling around her wings. He switched back to something blessedly nearer his usual voice as the narration described the owl, then returned to the ‘owl’s voice’.

As Sakumo turned the pages, the owl soared through the forest and around the mountain, then passed near a stag. Sakumo turned another page and shifted his voice to something lower and more confident as the stag forged his way up the mountain, throwing up plumes of snow around his slender legs, shining in the moonlight. Sakumo described the feeling of the snow around the stag’s legs before he turned the page.

Kakashi hummed, blinking sleepily as Sakumo changed his voice back for the next pages, the shadow of the owl returning across them. Then changed it again, for the tiger prowling below the owl, sharp eyes searching in the dark. The story continued.

Kakashi wriggled, and Sakumo smiled, turning the page. “And the mice and bunnies,” he said in a fainter, almost quavering voice, “scurry and hide. . .”

Nori hissed softly and Kakashi stroked him absently, eyes fixed on the artwork; a mouse huddled in a tiny space between dormant plants, a rabbit with a puff of a tail leapt over the bed of a stream filled more with rocks and snow than water. Sakumo returned to the owl’s voice as she was depicted in the illustrations once more, passing over the serene, snowy landscape, then changed again as a mountain goat dominated the page, springing from boulder to peak.

The owl took them down the slope over a prowling wolf, and Kakashi _wriggled_ again with a tiny sound of excitement, Nori’s coils shifting lazily around him. Nori was watching the book intently as well, Sakumo saw, smiling as he turned another page.

The wolf prowled through the snow, and Sakumo described a hunting wolf cub to his own cub, eyes intent on the pictures in the book. The owl perched on a branch above, winking one eye and watching the wolf prowl; Sakumo attempted to mimic the call of the owl and Kakashi snorted, giggling at him.

Sakumo hummed, lips twitching, and turned the page. It wasn’t his best skill, no. A flurry of snow was thrown up by a passing _human_ caravan on the next pages - Sakumo described it as a team of ninja out on a mission - and sent the smaller animals scurrying, the wolf cub hiding low, his silvery fur - Sakumo ruffled Kakashi’s hair - blending with the gleam of the snow.

The illustrations followed the caravan for a ways, but Sakumo described the wolf cub hunting, catching a darting mouse in his jaws and then padding carefully past the deep den of a sleeping bear. The illustrations showed a mouse curled deep in a burrow, and then a rabbit diving for its own, and-

“And then the wolfling ate them _all up_.” Sakumo said with a playful snap of teeth that made Kakashi giggle. Sakumo grinned, describing how the wolf cub, sated from his hunt, headed through the snow back to his own den, safe and sound.

Kakashi yawned, shifting a little and propping his head more comfortably on Nori’s coils.

Sakumo lowered his voice - as best he could while using the higher pitch of the wolf cub - as he told how the wolf cub made his way into the cosy den, settling close at his parents’ sides. “And the wolfling curled up safe and warm,” Sakumo said; tucked up and sharing warmth with his parents, “and went to sleep.”

He turned the page and cleared his throat, returning to the owl’s voice.

“The snow continued to fall, the world was soft and silent, and the owl glided across the sky,” Sakumo read, showing the owl with her wings spread wide against the full moon, “on the wings of a dream.”

Sakumo turned the final page, showing the snowy landscape from much further away, and held it open there for a few moments more before closing the book and putting it aside. “Oyasumi, cub.” he said softly, bending and nuzzling Kakashi’s hair, kissing his brow and drawing the kakebuton up snugly over cub and snake together. “Oyasumi, Nori.” he added, brushing a hand over Nori’s scales.

Nori hissed softly and Kakashi mumbled something unintelligible, smiling, his eyes already closed. He hugged Nori a little tighter.

Sakumo smiled at them, rising and putting out the light, slipping out and drawing the door almost closed behind himself. He stretched, then stilled, cocking his head. He grinned as he heard a soft, muffled _woof_ from his cub.

Sakumo crossed the short distance to his own bedroom in the dark, finding his mate already waiting in their futon, though sitting up with a book.

Orochimaru looked up at him, lips curving and eyes warm. “Our cubling all tucked in?”

“All ready to dream of hunting in the snow.” Sakumo confirmed, and Orochimaru’s lips twitched.

“Again?” Orochimaru asked needlessly.

“Just like every night this week. Even though,” Sakumo sighed, “it requires ‘doing the voices’ and I am _terrible_ at them.” Orochimaru laughed, and Sakumo huffed at him. “You’ll be reading it tomorrow night, I’m sure.” he added, and Orochimaru shrugged, closing his book and setting it aside. “Voices and all.”

“I don’t mind doing the voices.” Orochimaru said, holding the kakebuton up for Sakumo to join him beneath it.

“Of course you don’t.” Sakumo said, and yawned, sinking down. He had read the story _entirely_ too many times - could have told it entirely without the book, if Kakashi were not so fond of the pictures - and it got on his nerves a little to repeat it over and over, but reading to Kakashi always made him sleepy as well. “You are ever so much better at them.”

Orochimaru laughed, running his fingers through Sakumo’s hair. “Kakashi loves it when you read to him. Whatever voices you do.”

Sakumo grinned. “Kakashi loves the wolfling story.” he pointed out, tugging gently until Orochimaru settled gracefully down beside him, lounging with a fluid shift that brought one of his slender legs over Sakumo’s own.

“Of course he does.” Orochimaru said with wry amusement. “He loves the little hunting cub.” He paused. “Every little one should have stories like their own to get lost in.”

Sakumo drew his mate into a snug embrace, catching him for a soft kiss. “Of course, lovely.” he agreed, easing his hold and stroking up and down Orochimaru’s back with one hand.

**Author's Note:**

> The book in question was The Owl Who Became the Moon, by Jonathan London, illustrated by Ted Rand.
> 
> These were two of the pictures that specifically made me think it must be one for bb!Kakashi . . . and I drew inspiration from some of the other pages as I wrote the story Sakumo read to Kakashi here.
> 
>   
> 


End file.
